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One of more popular festival offerings returns this year: the free daily film industry panels at the City Opera House. This is where you get to hear first hand the stories and opinions of our visiting filmmakers where they mix it up with each other and the audience. These sessions range from the hilarious to the moving. This year they begin a half hour earlier, at 9:30 am, so that you won't miss lunch or your first movie at noon.
Free tickets will be handed out beginning at 8:30 a.m. to guarantee seating. TIcketed patrons may leave and return to line up following the numbers on the panel tickets. A maximum of two tickets per person will be distributed. Here's the exciting schedule:
Wednesday, July 29
40 Years of Documentary Filmmaking
Sponsored by Gretchen Shires & Chris Richards
It's been 40 years since Woodstock, 20 years since "Roger & Me," and great documentaries continue to be made. Again this year, some of the best films in the festival are documentaries -- and you should see the great docs we couldn't fit onto the festival schedule! We are fortunate to have with us here in Traverse City some of the world's top documentary filmmakers. They will talk about the history of their craft and the world and times in which they work.
Aung Htun ("Burma VJ")
Joe Berlinger ("Crude")
Cathal Black ("Learning Gravity")
Jim Czarnecki ("Soundtrack for a Revolution")
Michelle Esrick ("Saint Misbehavin': The Wavy Gravy Movie")
Emily Kunstler ("William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe")
Kevin McMahon ("Waterlife")
Michael Moore ("Roger & Me")
Thursday, July 30
Sponsored by Longview Winery
Palestine and Vine
There's a whole new crop of films coming out of the West Bank and Gaza, and we are proud to have two of the best films of the year on this festival's schedule: "Rachel" and "Salt of This Sea." Palestinian film had a watershed year in 2009, sending the world cinematic voices we rarely get to hear in the US. Rachel Corrie's parents, Craig and Cindy, and Palestinian filmmakers Annemarie Jacir and Ossama Bawardi ("Salt of This Sea") will talk about making great art out of hard stuff.
Friday, July 31
Sponsored by Ungaretti & Harris, LLP
Michigan Film Office Advisory Council Meeting
Interested in the Michigan Film Industry? Want to learn more about how the incentives are working to bring film development in Michigan? We're bringing the bi-monthly meeting of the Governor's Michigan Film Office Advisory Council right into the City Opera House so that you can take a look at how government moves. The Council will conduct their business in a public session, and then take questions from the audience at the meeting's conclusion. See some of the brightest stars in Michigan's film world in action and find out if they can make a governmental meeting dramatic.
Emery C. King, Chair
Bill Black
Bob Brown
Jim Burnstein
Xenia E. Castillo-Hunter
Hopwood DePree
Marcia Fishman
Cory Jacobson
Danialle Karmanos
Sue Marx
Tim Magee
Michael Moore
William P. O'Reilly
Marc L. Prey
Janet Lockwood, Director of the Michigan Film Office
Saturday, August 1
Sponsored by Miner's North Jewelers and Sylvia McCollough
Comedy, American Style
Most years we have to struggle to find great comedies to include in the festival line up. Although it initially looked grim, we ended up with more than our fair share of great funny films for our Firefighter Jury to judge.
Enjoy an hour or two talking about laughing with some of the filmmakers who lift us out of our national malaise and kick us in the keister.
Robert Byington ("Harmony and Me," "Registered Sex Offender")
Larry Charles ("Bruno")
Jeff Garlin ("Curb Your Enthusiasm")
Ben Steinbauer ("Winnebago Man")
Wavy Gravy
Sunday, August 2
Sponsored by Bay Bread Co. and Bob and Carol Goff
Paul Mazursky Talks
The Traverse City Film Festival is deeply honored to have the great filmmaker Paul Mazursky in person at the festival this year. After screenings of some of his best films at the festival this year ("Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "An Unmarried Woman," "Enemies, A Love Story"), Paul Mazursky will talk with Jeff Garlin about a life in the movies.
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